Two years ago when England squared off against a daunting Sri Lanka side, they had to give away a Test series to the visitors for the first time in history. This time the equation is different – England are a team to beat in their home conditions in the longest format and Sri Lanka are struggling in almost all formats of the game.

The two teams are ready to lock horns at the same venue (Headingley, Leeds) where Sri Lanka engraved their names in the history book. James Anderson will not be able to forget that moment of despair as the England team had to watch the buoyant Sri Lankan team celebrate their memorable win. The visitors had clinched victory from the penultimate ball of the final Test match.

Anderson still feels gutted about the fact that he could not last for two more balls when he had survived 55 deliveries prior to that deadly bouncer from Shaminda Eranga, which took off from Anderson's gloves and went straight to Rangana Herath in short forward leg position.

Sri Lanka have a challenging task in their hands as they will have to be at their sublime best to outclass this strong England side, which under the able guidance of Trevor Bayliss, has played some wonderful cricket in the last couple of years.

Meanwhile, this Test series is going to be a memorable one for Alastair Cook as he is just 36 runs away from a milestone that every Test batsman dreams about, when they start their career – 10,000 runs. In fact, he will be the first Englishman to score 10,000 runs in the longest format of the international game.

England bowlers Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Ben Stokes, Jake Ball and Moeen Ali will be very difficult to deal with in the English conditions. Broad has even agreed to the fact that they will want to avenge that series defeat this time as they have not forgotten that moment of agony.

"There is a bit of revenge to be had. It was quite an emotional series; it really hurt us as a team to lose in our own conditions," Broad was quoted as saying by the official website of ICC.

On the contrary, England holds a woeful record at the Headingley in Leeds and Sri Lanka will look to capitalise on that. The home side has lost four out of their five Test matches they have played in this ground since 2007. Surely, they will want to change that statistics against Sri Lanka this time.

"We did well here. We were thrilled with that, but this is a new series. Sanga (Kumar Sangakkara) and Mahela (Mahela Jayawardene) have left now. So it's time for all these youngsters to take their responsibility and do their jobs. We need to make sure we put up at least 300 to put ourselves in the game," Sri Lanka opening batsman Kaushal Silva said.

Here are the squads:

England: Alastair Cook (C), Alex Hales, Nick Compton, Joe Root, James Vince, Ben Stokes, Jonathan Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, James Anderson, Jake Ball.

Sri Lanka: Angelo Mathews (C), Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Dhananjaya Silva, Dasun Shanaka, Dilruwan Perera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dushmantha Chameera, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Milinda Siriwardana, Niroshan Dickwella, Nuwan Pradeep, Rangana Herath, Shaminda Eranga, Suranga Lakmal.

England vs Sri Lanka Test series: Complete Schedule:

England vs Sri Lanka 1st Test:

Venue: Headingley, Leeds.

Timings: 11:00 a.m. BST, 10:00 a.m. GMT and 15:30 p.m. IST.

England vs Sri Lanka 2nd Test:

Venue: Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street.

Timings: 11:00 a.m. BST, 10:00 a.m. GMT and 15:30 p.m. IST.

England vs Sri Lanka 3rd Test:

Venue: Lord's, London.

Timings: 11:00 a.m. BST, 10:00 a.m. GMT and 15:30 p.m. IST

TV listings: Stars Sports 1 and Star Sports HD 1 (India and subcontinents), Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports HD2 (UK) and ESPN3 (US).